


I think God was there

by depugnare



Category: Black Sails, The Exorcist (TV)
Genre: Demonic Possession, Implied/Referenced Prostitution, M/M, exorcist AU, it's not non-con it's just a demon being creepy and gross there's no rape i promise, non-graphic non con, referenced instiutionalization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 13:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13319550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/depugnare/pseuds/depugnare
Summary: God is love, and I am a man of God.So he walks forward and puts his hands on Flint’s shoulders and says “God has not abandoned you.”And what he means is “You still have me.”





	I think God was there

**Author's Note:**

  * For [straddling_the_atmosphere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/straddling_the_atmosphere/gifts).



  
John Silver wonders when it is that he started believing in God. 

When he was born? 

When he was put into the orphanage and learned to pray for things he wanted?

When love was put in front of him and he denied himself for what he thought was a higher purpose?

No, he thinks, it’s watching James Flint lay his hands on a girl trembling with pain and fear as a demon ravages her insides and soothing her. Murmurs soft words as he strokes her hair away from her face. As though he could pull the demon from her soul with compassion alone, hands pressing against her skin as if to say _take me take me take me_ _instead_.

Turns to face Silver with a look in his eyes, green as spring, and suddenly he understands.

“NO!”

Flint blinks, and the sclera of his right eye is filled with another iris.

“ _Yes._ ”

  
  
**_**_\- - -_**_**

 

 _God is love._  

 _This is what he tells himself when someone questions him, when someone asks him how God could let this happen._  

 _God is love; and love is patient and love is kind and God did not let this happen, it happened in spite of God._  

 _This is what he tells himself as he puts the collar around his neck, Madi’s scent still on his skin. When he watches a victim writhe on a pallet on the floor, bones creaking with the strain of possession. When he’s forced to watch James Flint expelled from the only home he’s ever known for being right._  

 _God is love, and I am a man of God._  

 _So he walks forward and puts his hands on Flint’s shoulders and says “God has not abandoned you.”_  

_And what he means is “You still have me.”_

 

  
**_**_\- - -_ ** _ **

 

 

Silver grips his throat with a bony hand, throwing him to the floor with a snarl. Flint bucks against his hold and Silver slams him back down. Starts murmuring a prayer. 

“Fool!” says the demon. “That won’t work on me. I’ve been after this one for a long time, and he’s mine now. Mine to tear apart from the inside out!” 

“Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name-”

“MY name!” the demon roars out, unable to move from beneath the rosary clenched in Silver’s hand. “He stole my name, this miserable fuck of a human. Stole it from me and used it to invoke fear in us. But I have his body now, and I’m going to burn it right in front of you.”

 “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven-”

Flint contorts beneath him, panting in pain. Bones creaking, he reaches up and drags a gentle hand down Silver’s face. Silver pauses for a moment and it’s enough for the demon to grip his chin like a vice.

“He _wants_ you,” the demon croons in Flint’s raspy voice. “With your pretty hair and blue eyes and your tight little ass. Wants to spread your legs and fuck you like a whore. And you are one, aren’t you? _Long John Silver._ Does he know you by that name? Know you used to let anyone use you to get a scrap of bread thrown your way-”

It chokes when Silver squeezes its throat, skin smoking beneath the rosary, words frozen on Flint’s tongue.

"And give us this day our daily bread as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation-”

“You can go through every prayer you know and it won’t get rid of me,” and he smiles Flint’s smile, slow and sharp.

“But deliver us from evil, in your name we pray, amen,” Silver finishes and the demon shrieks for a moment, but then stops and laughs, high-pitched like an out of tune guitar.

 “I am older than all of your prayers. So go on boy, recite everything you know and show me how many thousands of years humans have failed to banish me. The Son’s whore couldn’t drive me away during the crucifixion, and neither will you _slut_.”

Silver snarls at the demon and pulls vial of holy water from his back pocket and splashes it at the demon. Gets into its face so all four of its pupils are looking at him.

“My _name_ is Father John Silver, and I’ve got a _long_ fucking memory.”

Puts his hand on Flint’s feverish brow and starts on another prayer.

“Hail Holy Queen, mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness, our hope-”

Prays silently in his heart that one of them will work.

 

   
**_**_\- - -_**_**

 

 

_There is a song that runs through his head sometimes that he doesn’t remember hearing. Lilting, like an out of tune memory of a lullaby. Hums it as he cleans his apartment; as he wanders around the church before mass, voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling._

_“It’s very beautiful,” says a warm voice and he turns to see Madi, hair braided against the cold outside. “You used to sing that in school too, and walking home.”_

_“Madi,” he says, with a croon of the song still stuck in his throat. “My brown eyed girl…”_

_She smiles when he opens his arms to her and runs to him, minding the leg she knows is gone beneath the knee._  
_  
_ “What are you doing here?” he asks, turning to press his nose to her temple. “You’re supposed to be at grad school, learning to prosecute criminals and rule the city.”

_“I’m on break,” she murmurs, pressing against him. “And it’s been so long since I’ve seen you, man of God.”_

_“You like it?” he asks, plucking at the collar around his throat. “Keeps me out of trouble.”_

_“I doubt that,” she says, and pulls away. Reaches for his hand instead, tangling their fingers together. “Get coffee with me?”_

_"Mass is in an hour, but it’s the last one of the day. If you can spare a couple of hours to wait.”_

_"I can,” she says, squeezing his hand. Leans over to press a kiss against his cheek._

" _Madi…” he warns and she just gives him a sad smile._

" _You are my closest friend John, and I have waited for three years for you, a couple more hours will not make a difference.”_

_So Silver dresses himself for Mass and preaches his homily and bids farewell to every parishioner before looking up to see her waiting across the street for him. Bids her to come in and wait in the warmth of the vestibule while he changes out of his robes and into a soft blue sweater and jeans, slipping on his coat as he closes the door behind him._

_Freezes when he sees a teen not much older than a child holding a gun to him, Madi on the floor behind him._

_“Now hold on,” he says, holding up his hands._

_“The money,” he says, trembling. “The collection money. Give it to me.”_  
_  
_ “Did you shoot her?” he asks, glancing at Madi’s motionless form.

_“No, knocked her out. The money!”_

_Silver sighs and walks forward, unafraid of a boy’s trembling finger on a trigger. He’s suffered worse._

_“I do not take the money to the bank, that is not my job. There is no money here, but I can find you a warm place to sleep tonight.”_  
_  
_ “I don’t need a home!” the boy says. “I need money so my little brothers can eat!”

_“Okay, okay” Silver says softly, reaching forward and frowning when the boy flinches away from his touch. Cups the back of his head, thumb stroking the ragged hairline at the top of his neck._

" _I can help you with that too. Why don’t you sit down and wait while I check on her?”_

_“You gonna snitch on me?”_

_“No,” Silver says softly, moving past him to look down at Madi, already wrinkling her face like she’s about to wake up. “I know what it is to be hungry. You’ll feel better once you’ve eaten. That gun isn’t even loaded.”_  
_  
_ “How-”

_Falls silent at Silver crouches down, prosthetic leg sticking out straight to the side as he does so._

_“I’ve lived here my whole life kid, sit down.”_

_The kid does and Silver runs a hand up and down Madi’s arm, urging her to wake. She does and he sighs, cupping her face when she blinks up at him with blurry eyes._

_“John?”_

_“You’re alright. Just a hungry boy is all. We’ve been through worse.”_

_He’d been hungrier and the knife he’d wielded against the other boy didn’t have the option of not being a weapon. Madi looking up at him, face splashed with blood and eyes wide in horror from where she knelt at the side of Solomon Little’s body, his throat slit by the boy whose side now bore Silver’s knife as he ran down the street._

_“Have we?” she asks, eyes dazed as she stares up at him. Slides her gaze over to the boy folding in on himself on the bench seat by the wall._

_“He’s hungry,” she murmurs, closing her eyes. “Give him something to eat, give him…give him just….just one bite….”_

_“Shh,” Silver murmurs, stroking at her face as he pulls his phone from his pocket to dial for an ambulance. Requests one and then hangs up, turning to the boy._

_"Go wait in the rectory out back.”_

_“You’re not going to turn me in? But I hurt her.”_

" _Yes, you did. But she would have my hide if I turned you over to the police. Go on now, I’ll be back after they take her.”_

_Madi had been fine, just a slight concussion, and Silver had fed the boy and given him some of his own money and told him to bring his brothers when it was safe and he would help him._

_Three weeks later he watched the boy being led away in handcuffs, the bodies of his parents lying in the front yard. The bruise on his face would have been enough of a tell, but it was his cold, satisfied look that gave it away when he turned to look at Silver._

_“I just wanted something to eat,” he says, before they push his head down and put him in the back of the cruiser._

_Two other boys, one still young enough to be in training pants, stare at him from where they’re nestled between two police officers, blankets around their shoulders. Their faces are so gaunt it’s a wonder than can stand at all._

_Silver refuses to do the service for the parents, and gets banished to a retreat for a month because of it._

_He comes back with blood in his mouth from biting his tongue._

_That problem isn’t new._

_His words taste like iron for months._

 

_It’s a taste that’s never really left his mouth._

 

   
**_**_\- - -_**_**

 

Silver dozes, bleary eyes trained on Flint’s body held down against the floor with chains, still and quiet. He could be dead.

Every time Silver blinks he takes a breath and it sounds like the hiss of grease in a pan. The demon had fallen silent after something had cracked in Flint’s chest as Silver prayed the Ave Maria. That had been hours ago and still Flint didn’t wake.

Silver leaned against the wall with a sigh, rubbing at his leg. It ached where the prosthesis was attached, skin tight and cramping.  
  
“Getting tired?” says Flint, heaving a sigh. “Me too.”

Silver scrambles over to him, hands and knees tangling in his haste. Puts his hands on Flint’s face and sighs when he sees clear green eyes. Leans their foreheads together. Flint wheezes out what could be called a laugh and curls a bloodied hand around Silver’s wrist.

“So easy,” it rasps and Silver freezes. Sobs when he feels Flint tug him close, mouth to his throat. “You really are in love with him aren’t you? I can smell it on you.”

“Let me go,” Silver grinds out. The demon looks at him, searching his face with Flint’s eyes.

“No,” the demon croons. “No. I think I will show you what he has shown me. You think you know him? Think you know his pain? No, young priest, I think it’s time you knew.”

The demon stretches out a hand to place on his face and Silver leans into the touch even as tears stream down his face.

“He’s screaming,” the demon says, making a cruel caricature of a sympathetic face. “Doesn’t want you to know. How sad.”

Grips Silver’s face, scoring bloody marks down his cheek and Silver screams as his eyes film over and memories rush into his head.

 

   
**_**_\- - -_**_**

 

_“James.”_

_Silver turns at the sound and sees a tall, fair-haired man leaning against the wall as Flint, years -_ **_decades_ ** _\- younger, stares out the window._

_“James,” the other man says again and this time Flint turns, looks up as the other man smiles and leans down and oh. They do not kiss, but the way they lean together is so much more telling._

_“Thomas,” Flint murmurs, closing his eyes._

_There is no collar around his throat. No scars on his arms. No grief clawing at his face. Thomas brings his hands up to Flint’s face a caresses him, thumb stroking his jaw before he draws him up for a kiss. Silver’s heart hurts, but it’s not jealousy. No, it’s something much more tender._

_“I drove him mad,” croons the demon, and the scene shifts to Thomas lying strapped down to a gurney, Flint frantically trying to get out of the hold of two policeman as he’s rolled away, a dark haired woman screaming and fighting just as hard next to him._

_“Poor James. He got in a lot of trouble for that and he never saw his precious Thomas again. Ruined the Hamilton name and fortune too.”_  
_  
_ “Burn in hell,” Silver spits and the demon laughs.

_“Wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t already. Let’s see what else he’s hiding around in here.”_

_There are blurry memories of parents, of funerals, and of pain. Bruises splotched on freckled skin, dark buildings screaming with evil, and Thomas. Always Thomas. Thomas smiling, Thomas gasping in pleasure, Thomas howling in terror as he claws at his own skin as it burns from holy water._

_Silver is here too._

_In the crevices of older memories he catches glimpses of his smile, wry and playful. In the shadows of darker thoughts, his hair drips down like spanish moss, tangling in wistful fingers. His own eyes stare back at him from a face kinder than he remembers having._

_Silver shivers at the ghost of Flint’s touch on his face, thumb soothing across his jaw as Flint whispers encouragement to him. Feels the brush of cool, soft lips against his forehead. Looks up to chase the feeling and is met with the twisted form of he demon._

_“I have a surprise for you,” he says, stepping aside to reveal Flint slumped on the ground, bloody and bruised._

**_God is love_ ** _Silver tells himself._

_“The old lion, returned to you again,” the demon says._

**_And I am a man of God._ **

_“All you have to do is denounce him. Let him hear you say it. Tell him his love is misplaced.”_

**_I do not fear that  which does not know love._ **

_Silver tilts his chin up to look at the demon’s gaping maw._

_“I will defeat you,” he spits out. “If it takes days, a month, a year. I will tear you apart and set your rotten form on fire. I promise you.”_

_“What makes you think I’ll let you go?” it hisses, bringing a claw up to trace down his face._

_“Me,” Flint snarls from over his shoulder, smashing a hammer into the demon’s head. It sprays a fountain of foul black blood as it falls and Silver feels himself released from its hold on his soul._

_“I will free you,” Silver says meeting Flint’s eyes. “God has not abandoned you.”_  
_  
_ “I’ve always known that,” Flint says, reaching up to trace where the demon had scored its claw down Silver’s face.

 _“_ **_I_ ** _have not aban-”_

_Flint smiles at him and white light fills Silver’s vision._

_“I believe in you John Silver.”_

 

   
**_**_\- - -_**_**

 

 

Silver opens his eyes to darkness and vaguely wonders for a moment if he’s gone blind.

“Oh good, I don’t have to call an ambulance. Well, for you I don’t.”

“Madi…” he whispers as her face moves into his range of vision. She smiles at him.

“Yes, it’s me. You’ve gotten yourself into a big heap of shit haven’t you?”

Silver reaches for her and she takes his cold, worn hand in her soft, warm one.

“James?”

“Alive,” she says, looking over at the floor. “For now. Why didn’t you call me earlier?”  
  
“Couldn’t. Wasn’t safe.”  
  
“That’s how you lost your leg John, by trying to do dangerous shit by yourself.”  
  
“I lost my leg because I wouldn’t talk,” Silver says, “Remember?”  
  
Madi shakes her head and pulls him into her lap. “You lost your leg protecting others, just as you’re doing now.”

“James,” he says again and Madi smooths damp hair back from his forehead.

“We’re trying, but he’s not responding.”  
  
“Let me,” Silver says softly. “Let me near him again. How long have I been out? How long has he been alone?”  
  
“Eleanor called me when she woke up and you were on the floor. It’s been three hours since then.”

“He’s integrated,” Silver says when he turns and looks at Flint. “In so short an amount of time.”

“You’ve been in here for three days John. How long do you think it’s been?”

“Hours,” Silver answers, struggling to sit up. “I thought- what day is it?”

“Saturday.”

“Shit!”

Silver jolts up and immediately regrets it when white hot pain races up his leg. He looks down and finds his pant leg rolled up and skin an angry red. He touches the skin and winces at how warm it is.  
  
“You have an infection,” Madi says. “Please let me try to help him. Let Eleanor take you to the hospital.”

“No. Bring me to him.”

Madi sighs, but she gets up and hooks her arms under Silver’s shoulders, dragging him over to Flint’s rasping body. Silver leans over him and splays a hand over his heart and closes his eyes at the feel of the faint beat beneath his palm. Leans down to whisper in his ear.

“Son of the morning, banished from grace,” he begins, and Flint’s eyes snap open. “You are forgiven.”

Flint howls, eyes filming over. Silver cups his face with the hand that isn’t holding him up, tilt’s Flint’s head towards him.

“Son of the morning, profane thing, ashes of the earth, you are redeemed.”

Flint screams again, but Silver doesn’t waver. Keeps his hold on him, hand over his heart. Remembers Flint’s haggard face when he’d faced the demon and pulls Flint’s body closer to him. Presses their foreheads together and closes his eyes. Pours every ounce of energy he has into the next part of the prayer.

“Outcast, fallen angel, you are _loved_.”

Flint arches up and there’s another scream, but it’s not in his voice. Flint falls back to the floor and Silver sits up so he can look down at him. Flint is so still that Silver’s afraid they were too late, but then he gasps and coughs, blood wet on his lips. Rolls to his side and hacks up more blood.

“James?”  
  
Flint opens his eyes and looks up at him, makes a gurgling noise.

“Call an ambulance,” Silver breathes out. Shouts when Madi doesn’t move. “Now!”

She scrambles away and Silver leans over so Flint can meet his eyes.  
  
“Don’t you leave me, you understand? Madi’s gone to get help.”

“Eleanor?” Flint rasps out.

“You saved her,” Silver says, stroking his hair. “You saved her and now I need you to save yourself. I need you to fight for yourself.”

Flint blinks wearily at him, reaching up to grasp weakly at his wrist. Squeezes it once.  
  
“I need you to live,” Silver murmurs, leaning down to press their foreheads together. “Please.”

Flint nods and shuts his eyes, but his grasp on Silver’s wrist weakens. Silver clasps his hand between his and holds it to his heart, praying all the while. Closes his eyes and counts the heartbeats he can feel at Flint’s pulse point, breath catching in his throat as he feels them weaken.

“Don’t you dare leave me,” Silver grinds out, shaking his wrist. “You promised you wouldn’t leave me alone in this when I asked you for help.”

Flint’s fingers flex, but it’s the only reply Silver gets until the paramedics arrive and gently pull Flint from his grasp.

“His ribs,” he tells them. “They’ve punctured his lung.”

They nod and take Flint away, although they look at his leg with worried eyes. Madi comes in once they leave and he presses against her when she kneels next to him. Lets the past three days catch up to him and slumps into her lap.

“I’m tired,” he tells her, whispering as though it were a confession.

“Then sleep.”

“Not until you help me downstairs. You can’t carry me.”

“No, but that’s what my cousins are for,” Madi says, stroking his hair with a smile. “Sleep, and we’ll take you to the same hospital as Flint. Get you a shared room.”

“That’s an abuse of power,” he teases and Madi laughs, relieved tears running down her face. She leans down and kisses his forehead and oh, there it is. The love Silver was running from when he went into the priesthood.

“Sleep,” she says. “You deserve to rest. I will watch over you.”

“You always do,” he sighs, closing his eyes.

“Because I love you, moron,” she says. “Just as James does.”

But he’s asleep before she says the last part, pulled under by dreams.

 

  
**_**_\- - -_ ** _ **

 

 

_"John? John is that you?"_

_Ah, so it’s this dream. Silver waits for it, the nightmare familiar to him._

_Sees himself lying bloodied and broken on the ground, lower left leg a mangled mess._

_“John!”_

_Turns and watches as his friends find him and pull him up, nearly dropping him as he cries out in agony._

_“We have to get him to a hospital!”_

_“We can’t, they know our faces. They’ll report us to the police.”_

_“We can’t leave him here to die! He saved our lives by not talking.”_

_Silver does not remember the time between the first strike of the baseball bat against his leg and waking up with half of a limb in a cold, dark hospital room. He had screamed when he’d notice, trying to scramble away from the empty space that held the ghost of his lower leg._

_The days after that melted into one long, unending horror. A yawning chasm of uncertainty, his job prospects low, and his body image destroyed. Who would want a one-legged monster? Who could ever find him desirable?_

_Madi had tried to love him, but he would not let her. Had pushed his oldest friend away until she’d left him in a fit of frustration, only pausing to kiss him one last time before she slammed the door shut._

_His heart had been aching ever since, missing a piece like his leg. Stumbling where it once worked effortlessly. He couldn’t keep a lover, or a job. Couldn’t go back to selling himself on the side when things got rough, nobody wanted him._

_Emerged from a tide of darkness on the shore of the priesthood, tempted by guaranteed housing and steady meals. Learned that he_ **_liked_ ** _the part of the job that involved helping people and listening to their troubles. That he was good at telling stories, at spinning lessons from parables._

_But still, empty._

_His leg ached and his heart ached and every night he went home to an empty apartment, until one night he came home and the strange priest from earlier that day was waiting for him. Albeit, he was there to taunt Silver, but still. The lights were on and music warbled from the radio, and another living, breathing human being was waiting for him._

_That’s the reason he told himself that was why his gaze lingered on Flint for so long. He was lonely. Flint was a brother of the priesthood, who would know Silver’s issues better than most. Who also had the look of knowing what true hunger felt like. The prowl of somebody who had been alone for far too long and would snap up the first chance at affection they came across._

_Slowly, his heart stopped aching._

_In fact, it became so tremendously full that being around Flint made Silver feel like his heart would burst and blood would come seeping out from between his ribs, chasing the warmth he felt emanating from Flint._

_God is love, he tells himself. Every day, chanting it like a mantra. Until one day he believed it, that God resided in the space inside his heart that Flint had filled._

_God is love._

_God is love._

_God is love._

_And I love him._

_God resides within James Flint’s smile, his intelligent green eyes, the strands of red amidst his copper colored hair. In his hands as he lay them on an victim, quieting the literal and personal demons within them. On his tongue as he prays, commanding evil back to Hell. In his laugh when Silver said something stupid._

_Where Flint was is where Silver found God._

 

  
**_**_\- - -_ ** _ **

  

“Are you waking up?”

Silver blinked, opening his eyes to the dim light of a hospital room at night.

“Well I am now.”

Madi laughed and squeezed his hand and he squeezed back.

“Flint?”

“Woke up before you did actually,” she says, looking across the room. Silver follows her gaze and sees him sleeping on his back, gaunt and pale. Silver frowns.

“What happened to his hair?” Silver rasps.

“He had a gash on the back of his head they had to stitch.”

“He looks ridiculous.”

“Honestly John, he nearly died, his hair will grow back.”

Silver squeezes her hand.

“If I talk about….what happened I’ll-”

Madi just nods and he brings her hand up to kiss.

“How long?”

“Two days. You woke up in the middle of it, asked for water, and and passed out again. Got Flint all riled up, he tried to get out of bed.”

“He woke up? So soon?”

Madi just shakes her head. “That’s our James.”

“It’s rude to talk about people while they’re asleep,” Flint grumbles from across the room. Silver jolts up and immediately regrets it, groaning as he clutches at his side.

“You’re bruised,” Flint rasps. “Sit up slower, dumbass.”

“Nice to see you’re alive too. You’re welcome.”

Flint wheezes out a laugh and then falls quiet, trying to focus on Silver across the room. Turns to look at Madi and holds out a hand. She goes over to him and takes it, lets him kiss her palm.

“You haven’t left,” he says softly. “You should sleep, please. Instead of worrying about the two of us.”

“If I didn’t, the two of you would be dead.”

“Then at least I could finally get some fucking peace and quiet,” Silver says from the other side of the room. “You two always barging into my apartment.”

Madi just gives him a face and pats Flint’s hand before getting up to leave. As soon as the door closes, Silver is sitting up and dragging the wheelchair next to his bed closer so he can lower himself into it and wheel over to Flint’s bed.

“You’re good at that,” Flint says, eyes never leaving Silver as he gets closer.

“Having only one leg will do that to you.”

Flint concedes the point and then reaches out to take Silver’s hand, rubs it between calloused fingers.

“You saved me,” he rasps, eyes searching Silver’s face. “Even after you saw everything.”

“I couldn’t abandon you,” Silver says. _I love you_ , he wants to say. “That wouldn’t be right.”

Flint’s hold on him loosens, but he doesn’t let go.

“You _saw_ me, and still you fought to save me.”

“I saw a man torn apart by grief,” Silver whispers, leaning closer to him. “A man tormented by a love lost to tragedy. A man brave enough to keep going even after enduring that.”

Flint’s eyes soften and Silver could look at that shade of green for the rest of his life.

“Am I?”

“You kept going even after I exorcised a demon that by all means was integrated with your soul.”

“I did not do that out of bravery,” Flint whispers, as though it’s a secret. Looks up at Silver with searching eyes. Silver stares back, brow furrowed, until Flint raises his eyebrows.

“Really, you’re going to make me say it?”

“Say what? I don’t understa-.”

Flint cuts him off with a kiss to his forehead, to his cheek, to the corner of his mouth. Drags his nose across Silver’s cheek, presses them together. Silver doesn’t dare move, breath fluttering.

“I came back because _you_ called me,” Flint whispers, breath warm on Silver’s ear. Draws back and looks at him again.

Silver looks away, sucks in a shaky breath and closes his eyes. Manages not to flinch when Flint cups his jaw and very gently turns him back towards him.

“You called me with love and I followed.”

Silver surges forward and presses his lips to Flint’s, nearly sending his chair backwards with the force. Flint clutches at him, even when Silver tries to draw back. Settles down when Silver lifts himself onto the bed so he can sprawl across Flint’s lap without putting pressure on his ribs. Leans into Flint’s touch when he smooths Silver’s hair back from his face.

“Will you still love me even without my hair?” Flint asks after a while and Silver huffs, turning his face into his side.

“It’ll grow back.”

“Oh? So you _admit_ you loved me for my hair.”

Silver hauls himself up so he can look Flint in the eye. “I’d love you even if you were only a shadow James Flint.”

Flint shudders, letting Silver pull him close. Ignores the nurse when she opens the door, and only now does he notice the monitor beeping and flashing next to them.

“Mr. Silver, you really shouldn’t be out of bed-” she says, rushing over. She stops when Silver turns and looks at her, eyes pleading.

“Just a moment,” he says softly, arms still tight around Flint’s waist. “Please.”

“Watch his ribs,” she says softly, before going back to the door. “I’ll be back in a few minutes with the doctor since you’ve woken up.”

Silver doesn’t even register her as she leaves, turning back to Flint.

“That’s not my real name you know,” Flint whispers.

 "I know,” Silver murmurs. “I saw. I saw, and I’m sorry it was grief that drove you to the priesthood, just as it drove me.”

 “I didn’t want to love you,” Flint confesses. “Not after what happened to Thomas. I couldn’t lose someone like that again.”

 “Is he still alive?” Silver asks, taking his hand.

 “I don’t know. I was never allowed to see him and they moved him to a different hospital many years ago. I lost him.”

 Silver nods, studying Flint’s palm for a long moment.

 “Will you let me stay by your side then? Will you let me be your partner in this?”

 “How could I say no to you?”

 “You can always say no to me. I love you.”

 Flint pulls his hand to his lips and presses a gentle kiss to his bruised knuckles.

 “You make a fair argument.”

 “Then I have something to make it good: I will help you find Thomas.”

 Flint’s head jerks up, and the monitor beside his bed screams as his heartbeat ratchets up.

“What?”

"We help possession victims don’t we?” Silver asks, not looking up to meet his gaze.

“Silver you don’t have to take my faults onto your shoulders-”

“I just told you that I love you,” Silver says firmly. “ I am doing this for you, and because anybody who loved you deserves my help.”

“I thought you said I could always say no to you.”

“You can, that doesn’t mean I’ll always listen.”

They study each other for a moment and something settles between them, old and new. Familiar and strange. Flint smiles, and Silver smiles back.

“Very well, Father Silver. Where do we start?”

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
